Sorting apparatus



' Feb. 3, 1931. w, E, HUMPHREY 1,791,096

SORTING APPARATUS Filed April 17, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR Mam gfla MMM Feb. 3, 1931. w. E. HUMPHREY SORTING APPARATUS Filed April 17,1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Patented Feb. 3, 1931 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE VAN: 1A RUBBER COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIASomme APPARATUS Application filed April 17,

This invention concerns sorting apparatus, and, specifically, apparatusfor sorting articles by weight; to the end that, out of. a largernumber, those particular articles which meet and satisfy a certainstandard shall be retained, while those which fail to meet and satisfythe standard shall be rejected: I have developed the invention in itsapplication to apparatus for sorting tennis balls, and in thatparticular application I shall show and describe it; but. it will beapparent that there'is no essential feature of the apparatus whichlimits it to the sorting of tennis balls merely. It is applicable,wherever discrete articles are to be sorted by weight.

In the accompanying drawings Fig. I is a diagrammatic view in sideelevation of tennis-ball sorting apparatus embodying the invention; andFig. II is a view to larger scale of the same apparatus seen intransverse section, on the plane indicated at IIII, Fig. I.

In the manufacture of tennis balls, conditions of economic productionare such that there may be wider variation in Weight of particular ballsthan the specification of users require; and it, accordingly, becomesnecessar to reject from the output of the ballma 'ng shop both theindividual balls which are overweight and those which are underweight.This selection is advantageously made when the balls come from theirfirst vulcanzation, partially-cured and not yet covere An approximatelyhorizontal runway 1 is fixed at a entle incline, to the end that asuccession of alls B may roll down without great acceleration of speed.Since, as presently will appear, it is desirable that the balls beaccurately positioned within the trough, in certain portions of itsextent, the trough may be provided internally, throughout such portionsat least, or even throughout all its expegt, with guide strips or rails11 (see Fig.

The trough, otherwise stationary, includes co-operating verticallymovable sections; there is at least one, and for usual practice thereare two, pairs of such sections; if desired, there may be three or moresuch pairs; but, typically there are two, and in Fig. I of as a balldiameter.

1930. Serial 1T0. 444,988.

the drawings I show two. The trough sections of the first pair (and intheprovision of a single pair the invention may be realized) areindicated at 12 and 13. The higher of these (relatively to the inclinedrunway), the section 12, is movable vertically downward, through aconveniently small but suflicient interval; the lower section 13 ismovable vertically upward through an interval which (relatively tosection 12) is at least as great In Fig. I the extreme positions of thesections 12 and 13 when moved aside are indicated'in dotted lines.

The trough section 12 is carried on one arm of a horizontal beam 2,pivoted in delicate equipoise to swing vertically upon a standard 3 (cf.Fig. II, where a duplicate struc- 4 ture appears). The opposite arm ofthe beam carries an adjustable weight 4!. The weight may be so nicelyadjusted that, while a ball of normal weight will not disturb theequipoise, a ball that is too heavy will, by overbalancing the weight 4,swing the beam, and v in so doing cause the trough section 12 to descendto the dotted-line position (Fig. I).

A stop 5 may be provided, to limit the rangev of descent of the troughsection.

The beam 2 carries a metal rod 6, adjustable in its extent, as Fig. IIshows, and a cup 7 of mercury is provided. The parts are so arranged andadjusted that the swinging of the beam under the weight of a too-heavball will cause the rod 6 to make contact wit the body of mercury in cup7, and in so doing to complete an electric circuit. The

circuit so completed is efi'ective, through instrumentalities presentlyto be described, to raise the trough section 13 from full-line'todotted-line position (Fig. I).

The ball is not hindered in its course by the swinging of beam 2, andpresently it passes beyond the trough section 12, and thereupon thebeam, relieved of the weight, swings back to its initial position, readyto receive.

the next following ball; and, by the return swing of ,the beam thecontact of rod 6 with the body of mercury in cup 7-is broken andthecircuit alluded to is broken. p

. The trough section 13 is cradled in'a block 8, and the block isthreaded to move along meroee electromagnet 18. The range of clockwiseturning (Fig. I) of shaft 16 1s determ1nedby the proportions of theelectromagnet. lVhen the magnet, after ha ving raised trough section 13,is dcenergized, the shaft, under the excessive weight of the troughsection, will turn counterclockwise until, by abutment of block 8 uponthe nuts 91 upon rods 9, comes to rest in ,the aligned position shown infull lines, Fig. I.

The electric, circuit, completed by the make-and-break device 6, 7, isdiagrammatically indicated at 20; and this is the circuitwh ch energizesthe clectromagnet.

,It has; been found that, when a too-heavy ,ball has effected thelowering of the trough section 12-with the consequent dippingof the rod6 in the mercury of cup 7there is a tendency of the delicately poisedbeam 2 to chatter. Such chattering would tend to break the inagnetenergizing circuit before tue ball had "fallen from the trough section12, permitting the raised trough section 18 to descend too soon from itsraised position. To prevent such undesirable chattering of the beam 2, agravity operated steadying arm 19 is pivotally secured at 190 to a frameelement of the apparatus. The arm 19 includes a toot-piece 191 whichover-lies, but normally does not rest upon, the beam 2. The foot-piece191 desirably should not rest upon the beam'2 when it is in its normalposition, because in such case the sensitiveness of the counterpoisewould be slightly lessened. Accordingly, there is provided on the block8 a, shoulder 80, against which shoulder the pivoted arm 19 normallyrests, with the footpiece 191 clear of beam 2. W hen, however, at0oheavy ball has caused trough section 12 to descend, and, asexplained, has effected the rise of the block 8 and of the troughsection 13, the shoulder is raised, and the arm 19, no longerrestrained, swings under gravity counter-clockwise (Fig. 1), until thefootpiece 191 rests upon the beam 2, there to dampen or preventobjectionable chattering. The meeting surfaces of arm 19 and of shoulder80 are obliquely disposed, to the end that the return of trough section13 to normal position will raise the foot-piece 191 clear of beam 2, nowalso returned to normal position.

At a point along the trough higher than (though, preferably, immediatelyadjacent to) the section 12, means are arranged for feeding balls one byone from a line resting freely in the trough. Such means mayconveniently take the form of two vertically reciprocable stops 21 and22, movable from positions beneath the trough and out of the way of anadvancing ball, to positions of obstjiiuction, imwhieli positioneither-stop may hold a line of balls arrested. These stops, suitablyguided for vertical reciprocation,

rest severally upon cams 23 and 21, borne by a suitably driven shaft 25;and the cams are so particularly shaped and so relatively placed that,with each rotation of the shaft, one ball is released to roll singlyfrom the higherand stationary portion of trough 1. to trough section 12.

If the so rolling ball is not of excessive weight it will pass acrosstrough section 12 without disturbing it, and from trough sec--.

tion 12 it will continue on its way; if, how-- ever, it happens to be aball which is overweight, its weight when it rests on section 12 willeffect the descent of the section 12 to the dotted-line position(Fig.1), the consequent energizing of electromagnet 18, and the rise oftrough section 13 to its dotted-line position (Fig. I). All this willoccur in the brief interval while the rolling ball contin: ues onsection 12. When then it reaches the end of trough section 12, the ballwill fall tree beneath the raised section 13. At that point a receivinghopper 26 may be placed, and from the hopper the ball may be conveyedaway through a pipe (cf. the pipe 27, Fit 1]) to a suitable place ofaccumulation.

11. needs but a glance at Fig. I to perceive that with the provision ofa second palr of trough sections 14- and 15, suitably mounted, theapparatus may be adapted to select and divert not only the balls whichare too heavy, but also the balls which are too light; or, rather,having diverted the balls which in weight exceed a certain figure (andwhich are too heavy), it may similarly divert the balls which in weightexceed a certain other and smaller figure (and which are thus within therange permitted by the users specifications), and leave (to continue intheir course along the trough) the balls which are less in weight thanthat smaller amount (and so are too light) It is a matter merely ofproportioning the parts, and particularly of adjusting the weights 4upon the beams, to bring about such capacity to make selection.

It remains to remark that, when a second pair of trough sections 14:, 15is thus provided in co-ordination with the first, the feed mechanism forthe second pair need consist in no more than one stop, 28; for the ballsWill advance singly from the first separating device, and all that isneeded is the sure advance of each ball to the trough section 14, afterthat section has returned from a lower position to its normal positionin alignment with the other parts of the trough. This stop may be causedin like manner to reciprocate, by the action of a cam 29 borne by shaft25, upon which cam the stop 28 rests.

Thus the first hopper 26 will receive the balls which are over weight,the second hopper will receive the balls of proper weight, while theballs which are under weight will continue on their course along trough1.

It will, further, be apparent that, by adding still other pairs ofsimilarly operated trough sections, different grades of balls may besegregated from a common supply; that is to say, all balls which weighfrom a ounces to b, all from b to 0, all from c to 0!, etc.

Any commodities may in like manner-be sorted; though, unless they beround and capable of rolling, other provision will have to be made tocause them to advance singly to the vertically movable sections of theircarrier.

I claim as my invention:

1. In apparatus for sorting articles by weight, a runway including twoadjacent sections movable severally downward and upward, means yieldingunder weight for sustaining the downwardly movable section in itselevated position, and electrically operated means for raising theupwardly movable section, the last-named means being rendered effectiveby the descent of the downwardly movable section.

2. In apparatus for sorting articles by weight, a runway including twopairs of adjacent sections, the two sections of each pair being such asthose defined in claim 1.

3. In apparatus for sorting by weight articles which are round incross-section, an inclined runway including two adjacent sec tions ofwhich the higher is downwardly movable and the lower upwardly movable,means yielding under weight for sustaining the higher in elevatedposition, electrically operated means subject to the downward movementof the upper section for raising the lower section, and feed-controllingmeans allowing articles to advance under gravity one by one to thehigher section from a supply aligned upon the runway,

4. In apparatus for sorting by weight quantities of approximatelyidentical pieces, a runway including a section movable to a positionpermissive of the escape of a piece laterally from the runway, means formoving said runway section, means for operating the moving means lastnamed, such operating means including a member adapted to be subject tothe weight of a piece in its advance toward the movable section of therunway and,

6. In apparatus for sorting by weight quantities of approximatelyidentical pieces, a runway including a section movable to a positionpermissive of the escape of a piece laterally from the runway,electrically operable means for moving said runway section, an openelectrical. circuit including a source of electrical energy foroperating upon the closing of the circuit the means last named, meansfor closing the electrical circuit and rendering the source of energyeffective upon the means for moving said runway section, suchcircuit-closing means including a member adapted to be subject totheweight of a piece in its advance towardthe movable sec-- tion of therunway and, otherwise, immovable, adapted to yield under a piece ofexcessive weight for closing said circuit, and means which areeflfective when said runway section is in escape position for steadyingsaid circuit closing means when yielding to the piece.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

WALTER E. HUMPHBEY.

otherwise immovable, adapted to yield unposition permissive of theescape of a piece laterally from the runway, electrically operable meansfor moving said runway section,

